Rate increases have been the unspoken undercurrent of a
property insurance bill cruising through the Florida Senate.

As lawmakers have cast their votes on the quickly-moving and
complex bill, few have discussed exactly how much rates would increase under
the proposal. With little discussion of the bill’s rate impact, it has sailed
through committee and could be debated on the floor on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Citizens President Barry Gilway gave the first glimpse of the
actual rate impact and pointed out that it could be substantial.

“There are 11 territories that would see a rate increase of
over 60 percent,” he said

Here are some of the rate increases that will hit new
Citizens customers next year if the bill passes in its current form.

Other territories in Miami-Dade
County and parts of Tampa Bay
could also see annual insurance premiums increase by thousands of dollars.
Sinkhole rates in places like Hernando County could nearly triple.

Those numbers have been non-existent in the debate over SB
1770, which is reaching a floor vote after bipartisan support in three Senate
committees. Some of the lawmakers voting for the bill represent districts where
rate increases would hit hardest. Rates would go up mostly for new customers, but that includes
people who get dropped by their insurance companies and forced into Citizens,
and people who get dropped by Citizens and need to rejoin.

Sen. DwightBullard, D-Miami,
said armor-piercing bullets have become ubiquitous in his district and is
asking Gov. Rick Scott to do
something about it.

In a letter to Scott’s office
Thursday, Bullard called on Scott to begin an investigation into the flow of
deadly bullets into South Florida, calling them "military-grade" and saying his constituents are living in "open war zones."

“As night falls in many of these
communities, families gather before twilight not to feast, but to fear,” he
wrote. “They lock themselves in to lock out those who prey the streets with
high powered weapons that pierce a home’s walls as effortlessly as they pierce
a child’s body.”

The former CEO of Digital Domain is hitting back with an
alternative script after an Inspector General report slammed
the process that helped the now-defunct Port St. Lucie film studio get $20
million in taxpayer grants.

John Textor said the claim by Gov. Rick Scott and Enterprise Florida that
the Digital Domain deal was some kind of widely discredited proposal that had
been blacklisted by Enterprise
Florida, only to be slipped into
the budget later by aggressive lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist—is complete
fiction.

In fact, Textor said, Enterprise
Florida actually recommended that Florida taxpayers chip
in about $11.4 million to help Digital Domain bring jobs to the state.

An email Textor provided to the Herald/Times shows that an
Enterprise Florida representative wrote Textor on March 18, 2009, saying that
the organization would “present to [the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic
Development] relative to a one-time award of $6.1 million” and other awards for
a “total potential FL economic incentive package” of $11.4 million. The email,
not included in the IG report, said Digital Domain would be required to create
300 jobs.

EFI never went through with a recommendation to OTTED (which
is required for economic incentives
grants to be awarded), but Textor has a very different explanation for why that
did not happen.

According to Enterprise
Florida’s account, the
organization refused to support funding because Digital Domain’s finances were “extremely
weak” and its business model was suspect.
Textor has a different story, and questions Enterprise Florida’s
credibility by pointing out that the organization believed Digital Domain’s
business plan was strong enough to receive an $11.4 million incentives package.

Textor believes that he and others are being thrown under
the bus as a way for Gov. Rick Scott to attack the Crist administration, which
was in charge when Digital Domain received funding by getting special language
tacked onto the state's budget.

Senate President Don Gaetz has grown fond of saying, about the
legislative process, “It takes three ‘Yeses’ to get to ‘Yes’ and only one ‘No’
to get to ‘No’.”

When it comes to the ill-fated $20 million grant to a now-bankrupt
Port St. Lucie film studio, several legislative power players said ‘Yes’ to a
deal that later cost taxpayers dearly.

The long list of abettors, unveiled in a recently released Chief
Inspector General report, includes former Gov. Charlie Crist, former economic
development head Dale Brill, current Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, former
House Speaker Larry Cretul, former U.S. Representative David Rivera, former
Rep. Kevin Ambler and former Lieutenant Gov. Jennifer Carroll.

In a process that Brill said involved taking great energy to
“deliberately and intentionally sidestep the process,” Digital Domain was able
to corral enough support from Tallahassee
power players to get $20 million in taxpayer grants over the objections of the organization
responsible for vetting such awards.

According to the report, Enterprise Florida
advised against giving Digital Domain such a large grant in 2009, raising
questions about its financial stability.

But there were several other power players who said ‘Yes,’
allowing the company to circumvent the vetting process and gain access to a
large pot of taxpayer cash.

Last year, Digital Domain went bust in a high-profile
bankruptcy.

Gov. Rick Scott ordered his Chief Inspector General Melinda
Miguel to investigate how the deal came together.

According to Miguel’s report, here’s a timeline of how the
ill-fated deal came into existence:

A nurse who committed her life to providing medical care to Tampa’s black citizens, a Florida pioneer, and a women’s rights leader will be inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame by Attorney General Pam Bondi at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Capital Courtyard.

Nurse Clara C. Frye, who died in 1936, transformed her Tampa home into a temporary hospital in1908 and then established the Clara Frye Negro Hospital there in 1923. A pavilion at Tampa General Hospital is named after her. Aleene Pridgen Kidd MacKenzie, a 92-year-old Ocala resident, established the FSU Foundation and in 1964, Gov. Farris Bryant appointed her to chair the first Commission on the Status of Women; she was also the first president of a national women’s safety group. Pioneer Lillie Pierce Voss, the first non-Native American child born between Jupiter and Miami, grew up with the Seminole Indians in the wilds of what would become Palm Beach County. She and a brother later wrote a manuscript called "Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida."

The video shows news clips of economic doom and gloom during
the last years of Crist’s tenure, with news achors highlighting record high
unemployment and troubling economic indicators.

Halfway through the 2-minute spot, Scott appears,
talking about how the state has turned around under his leadership.

“It’s the first time in five years that our unemployment
rate has been below the national average,” Scott says on the video at a
campaign-style event that took place Monday in Orlando.
“Our unemployment rate is now down to 7.8 percent for January of this year."

The Department of Economic Opportunity highlighted the spot during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Monica Russell, DEO's communications director, called it "our idea of how to jazz up the Cabinet meeting."

Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which came under heavy
scrutiny last year for firing four internal investigators who had discovered evidence of executive misconduct, has announced that new forensic accountants have been
hired to root out fraud.

Citizens has
hired three forensic professionals, forming a team that Joe Martins, the
company’s Chief of Internal Audit, says will “provide an unprecedented level of
internal oversight.”

The abrupt disbanding of the Office of Corporate Integrity
last year raised eyebrows, especially after the Herald/Times unveiled documents showing that the investigators had
drafted an explosive report shortly before being ousted.

The report included evidence of large severance packages for
disgraced employees, mishandled internal investigations, altered documents and a number of embarrassing workplace mishaps.

Citizens claimed that the firings were part of a
restructuring effort, and the company announced Friday that the hiring of new
forensic professionals is part of that effort.

Gov. Rick Scott said the OCI firings “concerned” him and
asked his Inspector General to investigate last year. The report on that
investigation, which follows another investigation into excessive travel
spending at the state-run insurer, is expected to be released soon. In addition
to the two inspector general reports, Citizens has come under fire for giving
out large raises to executives, failing to negotiate large contracts and
inadvertently giving away $2.5 million to another insurance company (the money
has since been recouped).

Yesterday, Scott said he was “very disappointed” in what is
going on at Citizens and he has asked the executives to return the large raises
they received last year. Citizens said the raises were necessary to help the
company compete with the private insurance industry, where compensation is
higher.

The company's board is expected to address the salary issue at its next board meeting, but it's unclear if the executives will follow Scott's orders and return the money they've already received.

The Miami Dolphins cleared another hurdle Wednesday as a
Senate committee unanimously approved in the team’s plan to get taxpayer
financing for a $400 million stadium.

The bill, SB 306, picked up a major amendment
Wednesday, with lawmakers agreeing to allow Miami-Dade voters to have the final
say on whether or not to approve the taxpayer subsidies for the stadium in Miami Gardens.

The referendum could be a tough sell, and potentially
a deal killer, as a new poll suggests that Miami-Dade voters are
overwhelmingly opposed to the Dolphins’ proposal. More than 70 percent oppose
the proposal and most of those strongly oppose it, according to the poll from Dario
Moreno, a political science professor at Florida International
University.

Those supporting the bill brushed
the poll aside, saying the team had its own internal polls that showed more
favorable results.

“Ultimately, taking this through the referendum was the important piece to us,”
said Dolphins CEO Mike Dee, who traveled to Tallahassee to voice support for SB 306. “We want the voters to have a voice, and at the end
of the day, the facts will prevail.”

Marcus Bach-Armas, Manager of Corporate Affairs for the Dolphins, said he questioned the validity of the poll because it came from “Norman
Braman’s pollster.” Braman, a staunch opponent of taxpayer financed stadium
deals, has campaigned heavily against the bill.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens,
who is sponsoring the bill, said he is not concerned about the referendum, and
is instead focusing on getting the bill through the Legislature.

“My job is to pass it in the Senate, and that’s what I’m
going to do,” he said, adding that there would be ample time to convince the public about the benefits of a new stadium. The bill has cleared its first Senate committee with a
unanimous vote.

The amendment allows the referendum to take place before
the bill is enacted. That could potentially allow Miami-Dade to set a
referendum vote for sometime this Spring, ahead of the National Football
League’s decision of where Super Bowl 50 will take place. South
Florida is being considered, and the Dolphins say a newly
renovated stadium could help give the region a leg up.

“This is going to be a great economic boom to my
community and to the state of Florida,”
said Braynon.

If the plan gets approval from a majority of Miami-Dade
voters, many of whom are still stinging from the widely panned Marlins stadium
deal, the Dolphins are likely to get a flashy new stadium.

In his State of the State Address, Gov. Rick Scott highlighted human trafficking, saying his Florida Families First budget invests $1.5 million of his $74.2 billion budget to provide safe houses for victims.

In his speech Tuesday morning, Scott referred to Allison Good, who in a YouTube video describes how she was used for sexual favors and drugged when she was just five years old.

Gov. Rick Scott gave shoutouts to several business owners and economic
development professionals during his State of the State speech Tuesday,
heralding the business community for creating jobs in Florida.

Scott, a former CEO-turned-governor, has made courting corporations
and businesses a staple of his legislative strategy. According to Scott, who
gave an upbeat address to kick off the legislative session, “It’s working.”

The governor personally invited business owners and acknowledged
them during his speech.

Scott has highlighted all of the businesses in the past for
creating jobs, often with taxpayer incentives from the state.

Scott hailed Verizon VP Robinson in his speech for the company's decision to locate a new facility in Central Florida,
a move he said would bring “hundreds” of jobs to the state.

Robinson said Scott’s recruitment efforts helped Verizon
choose Florida
over other states for its expansion project.

“What it came down for us was quality of life, availability
of a qualified labor pool and the cost of living factor,” she said in an interview. “I think Florida is very
competitive with Gov. Scott and the work that [Commerce Secretary] Gray Swoope
is doing… working hard to compete for new jobs in Florida.”

Florida taxpayers also chipped in millions of dollars in economic
incentives awards to seal the Verizon deal. Scott is asking for nearly $300
million in funding for incentives deals this year, but lawmakers have expressed
skepticism.

Scott also acknowledged Bill
Johnson, director of the Port
of Miami and Chairman of
the Florida Ports Council, during the speech.

“When the Miami port dredge
project is completed, along with the Panama Canal
expansion, thousands of new jobs will be created,” Scott said.

Unanue, who welcomed Scott to a recent “work day” at Goya
Foods in Miami,
said the state’s business climate was improving.

“I think the state has turned around,” he said. “We’ve been
growing. And I see it around in the community as well… You see people going out
and moving, going out to clubs and restaurants. You see the economy moving
again.”

Scott stuck to that theme during his speech, which repeatedly used the phrase “It’s working” and pointed to the brightening spots of Florida’s economy.

While the economy is slowly improving, job creation in Florida still lags the
national pace. Florida is adding jobs at a
growth rate at 0.7 percent, half the rate of the U.S. Much of the drop in the
unemployment rate—which is down 3 percentage points since Scott was elected—is
due to a decline in labor force participation.